“Stupid, Idiot, Borderline Brain-Dead Moron”

Guess whose PVR cut out right as (MAJOR SPOILER) Jeremy shot Damon in the heart? Obviously I found a way to work around it, because otherwise I wouldn’t have the charming title for this blog above but it kind of bugged me for a different reason.

Having the bullet fired, the commercial break, and then the end of my recording? The panic that I wouldn’t know what to do next? It was the most dramatic moment I had while watching this episode, and while a midseason sluggishness before the next tentpole isn’t so crazy, it seems like we were without VD for a long, long time and now we’re sort of treading water.

Am I wrong? This episode was a lot of people having “problems” that don’t really seem to make them sweat very much – even Elena underground was sort of like “So anyway, if you can make it… come save my brother.”

I feel like this is partly because I don’t know who, if anyone, wants to save Jeremy. Why we’re supposed to feel for him or want to save him ever. I can’t deal with this character and I feel as though I was beating this drum this time last year. He’s boring. He says no to everything. He has no definable want, but he doesn’t have any definable not-wants, beyond wanting vampires and werewolves not to exist anymore and maybe to have his dead girlfriends back, both of which would seem to indicate a lack of connection with reality.

I am tired of people protecting him because he doesn’t seem to want to protect himself. Jeremy has been kept alive in spite of himself, to hunt even though he doesn’t want to, to be a hero against his damn will.

It’s frustrating to watch a character like that.

In fact, all of our characters were a little on autopilot this week, with the exception of Kol, who got to have a little fun, and Stefan, who’s pretending that not caring about Elena (because she touched another boy! Boo!) is something he accomplishes by gritting his teeth. There were people who were scandalized that Elena would think of wiping out an entire bloodline of vampires, but my God, at least she wants something!

Then there’s Bonnie, and while she wants something, it seems as though that something is on another show altogether. The problem I have with her and her slightly fragile emotional state is that all the rest of the gang seem to kind of walk around her with kid gloves all “Bonnie’s having a moment…again, so we’ll just …leave her to it. Again.” Nobody really worries about the changes of heart or motivation – in fact, nobody checks in about the fact that her dad is magically back in town. They’re trying to get me to care because she has all this dark power, but two things. First of all, if one of her friends would acknowledge her existence I would feel much better/more worried, and secondly, Witch Go Bad? That strikes terror into the hearts of anyone who ever watched a different show about vampires who had a certain level of snark.

Finally, I have no objection whatsoever to this being the cottage season. I love that they’re at the cabin all the time. And I’ll even go ahead and accept that they’re going to let the girls graduate at the end of the year and give them special honours or something, as though they ever went to school. But please don’t look me in the eye and tell me that of all the people on this show who have the crows feet and the receding hairline, that MATT is the one who is still a regular mortal 18-year-old.